UCOP celebrates June as LGBTI Pride Month
June 21, 2011 •
About 300 staff spent a sunny afternoon in the Franklin building’s rooftop garden, building ice cream sundaes and socializing with their UCOP colleagues in honor of Pride Month.
The June 2 event, cosponsored by the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex Staff Association (LGBTISA) and UCOP Staff Assembly, was such a success that LGBTISA co-chairs Gregory Sykes and Margaret Wu say they are considering making it an annual event.
In attendance were President Mark Yudof and special guest, ex officio Regent Darek DeFreece, both of whom addressed the gathering.
President Yudof gave his thoughts about the country’s progress toward accepting gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and UC’s ongoing efforts to form an inclusive and welcoming environment for its diverse community of faculty, students and staff.
DeFreece warmly shared his own life story and described his support on the Board of Regents for continuing efforts to improve the climate for LGBTI people at UC.
June is commemorated as LGBTI Pride Month in honor of the Stonewall Riots, a five-day uprising in New York’s Greenwich Village 42 years ago that sparked the national and international movements for civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.
For more details on the history, see the LGBTI Staff Association’s “Embrace Diversity” exhibit in the Franklin Lobby.
